


Epiphany

by iiii



Series: Incidents in Transit [19]
Category: Firefly, Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 23:06:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12046194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iiii/pseuds/iiii
Summary: Mal looked down at his hands. Traces of Dean Winchester's blood still clung in the creases of his palm. Mal had been in custody for more than a day and the purplebellies hadn't yet given him a chance to wash it off.





	Epiphany

Mara Wobbegong woke that morning to a blaze of glory.

  

 

At seven sharp Mara presented her legal credentials at the front desk of Pelorum Portside Holding and asked for the crew of Serenity. The trooper on duty pretended not to know what she was talking about.

 

 

By eight, a different trooper had escorted her to Malcolm Reynolds' cell. 

"Captain Reynolds? I'm Advocaat Wobbegong. I need your thumbprint here, and then I'll be able to act officially on your behalf."

"I ain't got the coin for fancy lawyering."

"I've already been paid."

"What? By who?"

"Ask the Lady Tam. Now, your thumbprint?"

Mal looked down at his hands. Traces of Dean Winchester's blood still clung in the creases of his palm. They had been in custody for more than a day and the purplebellies hadn't yet given him a chance to wash it off.

He gave the lawyer his thumbprint.

 

 

Mara barged into the commandant's office, ranting about equal treatment under the law and demanding tea. She pointed out that solitary confinement for a moving violation was far, far past disproportionate. Abusing visitors to this fair planet - whatever notoriety they might have earned - was just sinking to their level.

The commandant smiled weakly. "There's also the small matter of cabotage."

Mara ignored that and drank his tea. "Where are the children? Please tell me they're not in cells."

"Oh, no. Of course not."

She set the cup down with a sharp click. "[Chinese phrase], Gil, did you send them _off-site_?"

He did not reply.

"Get those kids back here, now, or I will make the many iniquities of Arch-Commander Gillikin Nunrat the next interstellar cause célèbre."

   

 

Sam and Dean Winchester were slouched on one side of the interrogation room table. The lawyer sat down opposite and introduced herself.

Sam said, "Well, hello, Ms. McBeal."

"No, man, what was the name of Lucy Liu's part? Ling? Ping?"

"Did you just admit to watching Ally McBeal?"

"Dude, _Lucy Liu_."

"Gentlemen," the lawyer broke in. "The commandant is willing to release Serenity and crew for a fine. But Captain Reynolds tells me that the two of you were thinking of staying?"

They stared back at her.

"Do you have tourist visas? I know you don't have permission to immigrate."

Sam shifted in his chair.

"Look, this isn't some border moon. We take undocumented entry seriously here. The penalty is forfeiture of your goods and person. And, not that you necessarily care, but if you don't leave on Serenity, that would put Captain Reynolds in violation of cabotage restrictions. The commandant mentioned that specifically. He means to put Serenity and crew on the auction block with you if he can."

"Wait," Sam said. "Are you saying illegal immigrants are sold as slaves?"

"No, of course not. Don't be silly. Illegal immigrants are sold as bond servants."

Dean said, "Oh. Well."

"In that case, I guess we'll be leaving with Serenity," Sam said.

"Good. There is one other matter," said the lawyer, and healed the cut on Dean's hand.

"Son of a bitch," Dean said.

Sam sat all the way up. "We said we'd call you."

"No. You told that 'Julie' of yours. She is of Joshua's band. I am... I think you would call me 'president of River's fan club.' Different set. Entirely different sphere, really. The way she just swanned in and got our _ovoars_ arrested and barely bothered to greet us in passing! But enough of that. I am Nahaliel." 

The Winchesters glared.

"I had to rent this lawyer suit to get River and her entourage out of jail anyway, and I do not know that I will have another chance to converse with you in person."

"'Lawyer suit'?" Sam said. "You're not doing much to convince us you're any different from the rest of them."

A blink, and it was the lawyer talking. "I got a good price for a day of my time. This angel isn't much of a negotiator. Underneath these wrinkles is now the body of a very healthy woman of nineteen."

Dean shuddered.

Another blink, and the angel was back. "It will take some hours to prepare Serenity for departure. There must be something you are willing to talk about, to fill the time."

"How about, 'what the hell is going on?'"

"You want gossip! I have gossip. Where shall I begin?"

 

 

The afternoon was fading rapidly, and with it, their launch window. 

Malcolm Reynolds, Mara Wobbegong, and Gillikin Nunrat stood together at the foot of Serenity's forward ramp, not talking. Both men looked angry; the lawyer looking smug.

Most of the crew gathered at the top of the ramp. Mal went to join them.

Kaylee said, "She's spaceworthy, Captain, but they lodged a tracker under the aft manifold. I'll have to tear down part of the engine to pry it loose."

"Found one tacked to an outside antenna, too," Jamie said. 

"Doesn't seem they confiscated anything we care about, but there's listeners in the galley," Zoe said.

"More in quarters," Victor added.

"That's no matter," Mal said. "We ain't going nowhere we shouldn't, not anytime soon. River, you reckon they left anything that's like to go boom?"

She smiled. "No booms. just bugs." She stopped smiling. "Lots of bugs."

 "We'll do what we can do about that once we're off this rock." He looked back over his shoulder to the corner where Sam and Dean were fiddling with their baggage. "You two certain-sure you're with us?"

"Yes, Captain," they chorused.

"Well, then." Mal moved to the control panel, aimed a mocking salute at the lawyer and the commandant, and closed the ramp. "Jamie, take us out of the world." 

 

 

Nahaliel had secured consent for a full day - 'not much of a negotiator,' his flaming sixth eye - so he didn't bother waking Mara when he took her body out to run an errand in the wee small hours of the morning. 

Trooper Kertia Hiskl did waken, though, when a wild-haired old woman in a nightgown materialized at the foot of her bed.  Nahaliel immobilized the trooper with the wave of a hand before she could do more than think of going for a weapon.

"Be still," the apparition said, and the room seemed to ransack itself.

Kertia Hiskl had been part of the detail that moved Serenity to the impound lot. She had picked up a souvenir.

"Ah, there it is." A shining blade rattled its way free from the lock box under the bed. Nahaliel took a moment - the sword of Gabriel, in his hands! - then secured it safely in his pocket dimension.

Nahaliel crouched over Kertia's frozen form. She tried to shrink away.

The hag murmured, "Don't steal from thieves," in Kertia's ear, and vanished into the night.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> ovoars - as close as I could get to "focus" in Enochian.
> 
> ***_***  
> *{\o/}*  
> **/_\\**  
> *******


End file.
